


Rallying Cry

by Chash



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-06 01:34:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15183818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chash/pseuds/Chash
Summary: Clarke should be excited that the guy from her viral tweet is coming to the rally inspired by said viral tweet, but she's really too bitter about the whole thing to feel anything like optimism. No matter how hot he is.





	Rallying Cry

**Author's Note:**

  * For [museumofflight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/museumofflight/gifts).



> Loosely based on [this tweet](https://twitter.com/judgment/status/1003676584300171264)! If you find the legal references here unrealistic, you don't have to tell me, I don't really care.

"Oh, and Bellamy Blake is coming."

Clarke frowns at Wells. "Who?"

Wells looks up from his laptop, where he's reviewing emails they got about the rally. "The model guy from twitter, remember?"

It takes her a second, and then she pulls a face. "He's coming to my rally?"

"Is that a problem?"

Right now, Clarke kind of feels like _everything_ is a problem, so it's maybe not fair to be annoyed with Bellamy Blake, but he is actually a large part of everything blowing up.

Even if he had absolutely no say in it.

"It seems kind of weird."

"I guess he saw your tweet and wanted to support you. It's not a bad thing. Publicity is publicity, right? And if you're both here, it'll get more attention."

As far as Clarke's concerned, the model guy doesn't _need_ more attention. The whole point of the twitter post was that Clarke got unfairly dismissed from her position as a TA because she did some nude modeling in college, and this Bellamy Blake guy not only modeled to pay his way through school, but won some sort of actual sexy teacher _contest_ , and now he works as a model over summer vacations and has apparently suffered absolutely no consequences.

It might not _just_ be sexism, but that's definitely part of it, and Clarke can't help feeling resentful that this guy showing up to the protest they're staging about her unfair dismissal will absolutely get her more press.

It shouldn't be about _him_ ; none of this should be. Even if he didn't do anything wrong, he's closer to a villain than a hero in all this, and she has no one to blame but herself.

"You know I can see you, right?" Wells says. "Why are you pissed?"

"It's _my_ rally, not his."

"What, you think he's going to try to steal the spotlight? He doesn't need the spotlight. He's good"

"Nothing bad happened to him."

" _Hi, this might sound weird, but I'm the guy from your twitter post, the teacher who models on the side. We actually live pretty close to each other, so I thought I'd come to the rally. It's a shitty double-standard that I can do this and you can't, and I'd love to lend my voice to that message, if you're cool with it_ ," Wells reads. "Sounds like he doesn't think anything bad happened to him either."

"So you think I should let him come."

"You can say no if you want, but I wouldn't. He's got a relevant perspective on this."

"And people will listen to him because he's a guy."

"I didn't say that."

"But they will."

"They'll listen to him because he has the other side of the story. Like I said, if you want to tell him he's not welcome, we can, but it seems like kind of a waste."

"No, I don't want to tell him not to come." She sighs. "I just hate all of this."

Wells' expression softens. "I know. It sucks, you should hate it. That's why we're doing this. And if having Bellamy Blake on our side makes them listen--"

"Use all the resources at our disposal."

"Exactly." He gives it a beat. "And he's hot."

Clarke has to laugh. "And he's hot, yeah. Obviously, what we should be doing at this point is objectifying him."

"Not to his face. Just, you know, as a bonus. It's going to be a stressful week, we deserve some eye candy."

"We do," she declares, with more conviction than she feels. Even if they _do_ deserve it--and they probably do--she's having trouble getting excited about any part of the rally. It's a good idea, but she's just so pissed that she even has to do it, she can't really summon anything but bitterness.

As if he's reading her mind, Wells says, "You're doing the right thing."

"With Bellamy Blake or in general?"

"Both."

She smiles. "Thanks. Do you still have his picture up? I want to see how hot he is."

"I bet there's a ton of him on google image search," says Wells, grinning, and Clarke lets herself grin back.

*

The rally is happening because when Clarke was in undergrad, she did a decent amount of nude modeling. 

At first, it was fairly low profile, nothing anyone would ever find. She was doing art on the side with pre-med back then, and when her friend needed a model for some pictures, she volunteered, only partly because she had a crush and was hoping they'd hook up. The friend was straight, so that didn't work out, but she found she didn't mind being naked on camera, and it became, in that college way, something of a moral position. Nudity was natural and normal and a traditional part of art, and there was nothing wrong with posing naked.

If she'd been planning to become a teacher back then, maybe she would have thought twice, but probably not. She always said she didn't want a job that would fire her for her art, and it's still true, in some ways. She's pissed at her job and wishes they'd stood up to the parents calling for her removal, and a part of her does just want to burn it down entirely.

But she likes teaching, and, more than that, this is apparently _still_ something of a moral crusade for her.

Wells was the one who found the article about Bellamy, and Clarke was the one who put up the tweet, after her dismissal, because she was so fucking _pissed_ that the existence of her breasts made her body inappropriate. And she does get that there are some differences, the details of their careers not exactly the same, but if Bellamy Blake can take his shirt off and still teach history, Clarke should be able to take hers off and still teach art. 

The tweet went viral quickly, and Clarke didn't feel that bad about it at first. Bellamy's name wasn't in it, and it wasn't like she was calling for him to be fired or anything. But the more it picked up, the guiltier she felt for involving a stranger in her own personal crusade without his knowledge or consent.

It's a cause she believes in, and she's happy to fight for it, but if she'd realized that was what she was doing, she might have tried to plan it better.

In theory, Bellamy wanting to get involved should have made her feel better, but she's mostly waiting for the catch. For him to be pissed at her, to think she _was_ trying to get him fired, for any of a thousand things that could go wrong with the rally generally and him being involved, specifically.

So after she and Wells have finished looking at Bellamy's online portfolio and Wells has emailed him from the official rally email address, Clarke has a hard cider for morale and sends him another email, asking if he wants to get coffee and talk about logistics.

He could still lie about what he's going to say, of course. He could pretend he's on her side and undermine her, steal the spotlight in a thousand ways. But she already _got_ fired; there's only so much he can do to her, and it's not like the crowd will be on his side if he does turn on her.

She still feels so much better when he immediately agrees to coffee. If nothing else, she can try to get a sense for him.

And, really, it shouldn't be a surprise that the first impression she has of him in the coffee shop is that he's incredibly hot. The first thing she learned about him was that he was hot, and there wasn't any reason to think he'd stopped.

But it's a lot to take in in-person.

He spots her while she's still trying to figure out what to say, breaks out in a wide grin that just makes the whole situation worse. But there's nothing to do but go over and offer him a smile of her own. This was what was _supposed_ to be happening. This is what she wanted.

"Hi, you must be Bellamy."

He was already seated with a drink, but he stands to greet her, offering one large hand to her. "Yeah, nice to meet you."

He has a firm grip and a nice voice, a little rough, but deep and warm. "You too. I'm going to go grab a drink?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

She keeps stealing glances at him when she's in line, trying to get used to the sight of him. Being attractive is no guarantee of being a good guy, so she can't let the inconvenient tug of attraction in her gut distract her from her actual business. She's scoping him out, not checking him out.

But he really _does_ look like a model, even here. He's reading something on his phone, taking periodic drinks from his coffee, and any picture she took of him could have gone into a magazine ad to sell a better life.

Which is exactly the kind of thought she doesn't need to be having.

She orders iced tea, so there's no wait time, and once she's paid, she makes her way back over to Bellamy's table. He smiles again, putting his phone down, and Clarke takes a breath.

"I'm sorry."

He cocks his head. "Sorry for what?"

"I made you part of a viral tweet. I know how much attention I'm getting, I assume you are too."

"Not as much as I could be. I got a lot of attention for the first article, for the same reason--it was a pretty small, local piece, but someone put it on twitter, it picked up a lot of likes and retweets. Honestly, my little sister had a field day, there were _memes_. And some backlash, but the school district stood by me."

"So, people were saying you should be fired?"

"Not many. But if I was a woman, there would have been a lot more."

"And this didn't make it worse?" He cocks his head, and she sighs. "My take on it was that if you weren't fired, I shouldn't be either. Some people might say, _yeah, he should be fired_."

"Not so far. Or, at least, not that I've seen. Anyone who isn't on your side thinks what I'm doing is fine and what you're doing is pornography, not that I'm a problem." He rolls his eyes. "Assholes."

"How did you get started?"

"Grew up in LA, needed extra money. I had a bunch of part-time jobs, that one was some of the best pay for the least work. I was going to stop, but I don't make enough teaching that I don't still want extra money. What about you?"

"Stubborn college idealism."

He laughs. "Yeah?"

"Guys can pose shirtless and no one cares; women do it and it's pornography. I didn't like the double-standard, and nudes are a big part of art history. I still think it's true," she adds. "And I think it's bullshit that I got fired because some students found pictures of my breasts. I was getting harassed, and it's a huge problem that the school decided to get rid of me instead of disciplining the kids who printed the pictures and put them up in my room."

"Jesus," he says. "I know it's a shitty double-standard, but it's really different when my students do that."

"Do they?"

"I get a lot of weird photoshops, but they're funny. Not--"

"Attacks."

"Yeah." He shakes his head, making a face. "Do you want the job back?"

"Not really. But I think it's important to make sure they know they're wrong. They deserve a shitstorm, and I'm going to give them one, and then I have to figure out where I go from there."

"I get that. Not full-time modeling?" he asks, but there's a teasing note in his voice, like they're friends sharing a joke, and she finds herself smiling back. "Because I have an in."

"Is it fun?"

He shrugs. "It's not a bad way to stay busy in the summer. I do some poses, get some money--honestly, I think it's probably good, from an educational perspective. I don't get the kind of shit you were getting, but there are still kids who want to stir shit, and I know I can push back and the administration will support me."

"Must be nice."

"I don't know if we're looking for art teachers," he says. "But I have an in there too."

"You think they'd support me?"

To her relief, he doesn't respond right away, doesn't take it for granted. "Honestly, I don't know. It's one thing to say they think you're doing the right thing--I talked to the principal before I said I was coming to the rally, to make sure it wasn't going to be a problem for me, and she supported me--and another thing to hire you. And I don't know if they want to do that."

She smiles. "Thanks for being honest."

"I'm always kind of expecting to get fired, so I think about it a lot."

"Yeah?"

"The modeling thing went okay, but there's still my sexuality, my race--" He shrugs. "All it takes is the wrong parent deciding to complain, it feels like."

"Yeah, I had a girlfriend when I first started teaching, I just never mentioned her and felt shitty about it. Do you have a boyfriend?"

"Not right now. And I'm pan, so it's not like--" He huffs. "I could date a girl and it's no big deal."

"Same, but bi and guys."

"Sucks, right?" he asks, with a twist of his mouth.

"It does." She taps the tabletop. "What are you planning to say? At the rally."

"I haven't written it yet. Why, you have any requests?"

"Not really. I was mostly worried you were going to be a dick."

"Glad I'm not," he says. "I really do just want to help."

"I appreciate it. I need all the help I can get, honestly."

His smile is soft and has only gotten more attractive as she talks to him, which is annoying. She kind of wishes he _had_ been an asshole. "Well, let me know what I can do."

"Yeah," she lies. "I will."

*

If there were any way for her to avoid telling Wells she got coffee with Bellamy, Clarke would absolutely never mention it, but Bellamy's going to know who she is when he shows up, and he's probably going to talk about the conversation they had. Which means that if she doesn't get ahead of it, Wells will ask _Bellamy_ , and Bellamy will both have to tell Wells that they talked _and_ will know that Clarke didn't tell him that.

So when Bellamy texts her on the day of the rally to tell her he'll be there in an hour, Clarke tells Wells.

"You're texting Bellamy Blake now?"

"I wanted to see what he was going to say, so we got coffee."

"Didn't want to tell me about that?"

"Not really. It wasn't a big deal, why would I tell you?"

It's one of those lies she's not even sure why she bothers attempting, because Wells isn't going to buy it, and she knows it's pointless. All he has to do is look at her and she caves. "I was worried he was going to be mad."

"Mad about what?"

"Getting put in a viral tweet that he heard enough about that he knew I was having a rally? He could have been pissed. Or an asshole. I didn't use that story because I knew he'd be on my side, I used that story because you found it and I was mad."

"Yeah, but he knew he was in the story," says Wells. "It's not like we wrote an expose on how he was getting away with this, we were looking for precedent and found an article with quotes from him in it."

She smiles a little. "Just because that's how we see it doesn't mean that's how he sees it."

"But he does."

"But he does, yeah. He was nice. And he's pan, so you've got a shot."

"So do you," he shoots back. "You're the one he's texting. And probably the reason he's coming early."

"I think he's just a good guy."

"Which is a good reason to go out with him."

"This is why I didn't tell you I got coffee with him."

"Or because you had something to hide."

She rolls her eyes. "Or we should be setting up for the rally, not gossiping."

Because he's her best friend, he smiles, says, "Or that," and lets it go.

Clarke has a little more trouble getting her mind off Bellamy, though. It's not like she really thinks that anything is going to happen with the two of them but she is a little excited to see him again. She doesn't meet a lot of new people these days, especially not people she actually thinks she might like to hang out with. Just because Bellamy isn't necessarily a romantic prospect doesn't mean she can't want to see more of him.

So, yeah, she's maybe a little anxious waiting for him to show up. If nothing else, it's a nice break from being worried about the rally itself. Much better to think about what she'll say to Bellamy than to wonder who will show up, if anyone will, how much pushback she'll get from parents who think it's inappropriate for her to teach their kids, how much abuse she'll get versus how much support. 

"Hey," says Bellamy, and Clarke jumps. "Sorry. You looked like you were trying to burn a hole in the table with your eyes."

"I wish."

He sits down next to her. "Superhero would be a pretty cool new job. Nervous?"

"I'm not sure how this is going to go."

"You're going to be really inconvenient for the school and they'll have to deal with bad PR for at least a year."

She has to smile. "That's what you're going with?"

"It seemed like what you were interested in. You might not get the job back, but this is going to be a lot of negative publicity for them. I'm not always a fan of internet mob justice, but I think that's the only justice you're going to get."

"Probably."

"So, anything I can do? Setup help you need?"

"My best friend Wells is doing parking stuff. Honestly, we planned so well there's not much left to do, and I'm stressing."

"I've got a trivia app on my phone," he says, and she smiles.

"You're not bad at this."

"I overthink things a lot." He pulls up the app. "I really am just here to help."

And he really is good at it. The trivia app is great because they spend the whole time bickering, and she doesn't even notice Wells has jointed them until he clears his throat.

Her focus is shot today, but at least this is in a fun way. And Bellamy looks just as surprised as she is.

"This must be Bellamy," he says.

Bellamy stands to offer his hand, all politeness. "That's me."

"Wells Jaha," says Clarke. "My best friend and legal consultant."

"Good combination. How's the legal case here?"

"Not great. The union isn't on her side."

"Assholes."

Wells smiles. "I think so. We'll see how they respond to this. If Clarke's got a wrongful termination case, I'll make it, but I'm thinking we're probably done. Is your district hiring?"

"I haven't asked yet, but I'll keep you posted. Do we have a program for today? Am I speaking?"

"Do you want to speak?" Clarke asks.

"I wrote some notes, so I can if you want. But it's your show, Clarke. I'm just here to make you look good."

"Can I see your notes?"

"It's more of an outline, I like to improvise," he says, but he doesn't seem worried. Clarke assumes he's pretty used to speaking in front of crowds, the same as she is, and his talking points are good, smart and to the point, and it's not like he's going to upstage her, but he's definitely going to get the crowd pumped for her.

"You're pretty good at this," Wells says, and Bellamy laughs.

"Thanks, I try. How much longer before people start showing up?"

"Not sure," says Clarke. "Maybe half an hour."

"Cool." He turns his attention to Wells. "Do you like trivia?" 

That gets them through until people show up, and then it's just--

Amazing, honestly. Clarke always worries a lot before things happen and then they're never as bad as she thinks they'll be, but with Bellamy around, it's hard to even remember to worry. He's effortlessly charming, his speech is great, and he gets everyone primed to support her, some combination of ally and hype man, even better at it than Wells.

They make a really good team, and there's no way they're going to be done after this.

He must be thinking the same thing, because he stays to help clean up, hanging out until the crowd has thinned. Wells pointedly goes to deal with something else, dragging Monty and Niylah with him, leaving Clarke and Bellamy alone.

She offers him a smile as they break down tables. "I really can't thank you enough for coming."

"You can," says Bellamy, easy.

"I can?"

"You can let me buy you dinner."

She has to laugh. "Wow. That was actually really smooth."

"Yeah? I spent all afternoon coming up with it."

"Time well spent."

"I was hoping so." He grins. "This might be the first good thing that's ever happened to me on twitter."

Clarke laughs. "This might be the first good thing that's happened to _anyone_ on twitter. And I still lost my job."

"Fuck them, they don't deserve you. You're going to get something so much better."

It's a lot of optimism, but she's got a date with a cute boy--an actual _model_ \--and she took a stand for what she thought was right and it went pretty well.

"Yeah," she agrees, letting herself grin. "I think I am."


End file.
